The House of Capet or the Direct Capetians (French: Capétiens directs, Maison capétienne), also called the House of France (la maison de France), or simply the Capets, ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. Historians in the 19th century came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. It was not a contemporary practice (see House of France). They were sometimes called "the third race of kings", the Merovingians being the first, and the Carolingians being the second. The name Capet is derived from the nickname of Hugh, the first Capetian King, who was known as Hugh Capet.

The first Capetian monarch was Hugh Capet (c.939–996), a Frankish nobleman from the Île-de-France, who, following the death of Louis V of France (c.967–987) – the last Carolingian King – secured the throne of France by election. He then proceeded to make it hereditary in his family, by securing the election and coronation of his son, Robert II (972–1031), as co-King. The throne thus passed securely to Robert on his father's death, who followed the same custom – as did many of his early successors.

The Capetian Kings were initially weak rulers of the Kingdom – they directly ruled only small holdings in the Île-de-France and the Orléanais, all of which were plagued with disorder; the rest of France was controlled by potentates such as the Duke of Normandy, the Count of Blois, the Duke of Burgundy (himself a member of the Capetian Dynasty after 1032) and the Duke of Aquitaine (all of whom faced to a greater or lesser extent the same problems of controlling their subordinates). The House of Capet was, however, fortunate enough to have the support of the Church, and – with the exception of Philip I (1052–1108, who became king at 8), Louis IX (1214–1270, who became king at 12) and the short-lived John the Posthumous (born and died in 1316 after a few days of life) – were able to avoid the problems of underaged kingship.

Briefly, under Louis VII 'the Young' (1120–1180), the House of Capet rose in their power in France – Louis married Aliénor (1122–1204), the heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and so became Duke – an advantage which had been eagerly grasped by Louis VI 'the Fat' (1081–1137), Louis the Young's father, when Aliénor's father had asked of the King in his Will to secure a good marriage for the young Duchess. However, the marriage – and thus one avenue of Capetian aggrandisement – failed: the couple produced only two daughters, and suffered marital discord; driven to secure the future of the House, Louis thus divorced Aliénor (who went on to marry Henry II of England (1133–1189), and be known to English history as Eleanor of Aquitaine), and married twice more before finally securing a son, Philippe Dieu-donné ("The God-Given"), who would continue the House as Philip II Augustus (1165–1223), and break the power of the Angevins – the family of Aliénor and Henry II – in France.

Louis VIII (1187–1226) – the eldest son and heir of Philip Augustus – married Blanche of Castile (1188–1252), a granddaughter of Aliénor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England. In her name, he claimed the crown of England, invading at the invitation of the English Barons, and briefly being acclaimed – though, it would later be stressed, not crowned – as King of England. However, the Capetians failed to establish themselves in England – Louis was forced to sign the Treaty of Lambeth, which legally decreed that he had never been King of England, and the Prince reluctantly returned to his wife and father in France. More importantly for his dynasty, he would during his brief reign (1223–1226) conquer Poitou, and some of the lands of the Pays d'Oc, declared forfeit from their former owners by the Pope as part of the Albigensian Crusade. These lands were added to the French crown, further empowering the Capetian family.

Louis IX (1214–1270) – Saint Louis – succeeded Louis VIII as a child; unable to rule for several years, the government of the realm was undertaken by his mother, the formidable Queen Blanche. She had originally been chosen by her grandmother, Aliénor, to marry the French heir, considered a more suitable a Queen of the Franks than her sister Urraca; as regent, she proved this to be so, being associated in the Kingship not only during her son's minority, but even after he came into his own. Louis, too, proved a largely acclaimed King – though he expended much money and effort on the Crusades, only for it to go to waste, as a King of the Franks he was admired for his austerity, strength, bravery, justice, and his devotion to France. Dynastically, he established two notable Capetian Houses: the House of Anjou (which he created by bestowing the County of Anjou upon his brother, Charles (1227–1285)), and the House of Bourbon (which he established by bestowing Clermont on his son Robert (1256–1317) in 1268, before marrying the young man to the heiress of Bourbon, Beatrix (1257–1310)); the first House would go on to rule Sicily, Naples, and Hungary, suffering many tragedies and disasters on the way; the second would eventually succeed to the French throne, collecting Navarre along the way.

At the death of Louis IX (who shortly after was set upon the road to beatification), France under the Capetians stood as the pre-eminent power in Western Europe. This stance was largely continued, if not furthered, by his son Philip III (1245–1285), and his son Philip IV (1268–1314), both of whom ruled with the aid of advisors committed to the future of the House of Capet and of France, and both of whom made notable – for different reasons – dynastic marriages. Philip III married as his first wife Isabel (1247–1271), a daughter of King James I of Aragon (1208–1276); long after her death, he claimed the throne of Aragon for his second son, Charles (1270–1325), by virtue of Charles' descent via Isabel from the Kings of Aragon. Unfortunately for the Capetians, the endeavour proved a failure, and the King himself died of dysentery at Perpignan, succeeded by his son, Philip IV.

Philip IV had married Jeanne (1271–1305), the heiress of Navarre and Champagne. By this marriage, he added these domains to the French crown. He engaged in conflicts with the Papacy, eventually kidnapping Pope Boniface VIII (c.1235–1303), and securing the appointment of the more sympathetic Frenchman, Bertrand de Goth (1264–1314), as Pope Clement V; and he boosted the power and wealth of the crown by abolishing the Order of the Temple, seizing its assets in 1307. More importantly to French history, he summoned the first Estates General – in 1302 – and in 1295 established the so-called "Auld Alliance" with the Scots, at the time resisting English domination. He died in 1314, less than a year after the execution of the Templar leaders – it was said that he had been summoned to appear before God by Jacques de Molay (died 1314), the Grand Master of the Templars, as the latter was burnt at the stake as a heretic; it was also said that de Molay had cursed the King and his family.

It was Philip IV who presided over the beginning of his House's end. The first quarter of the century saw each of Philip's sons reign in rapid succession: Louis X (1314–1316), Philip V (1316–1322) and Charles IV (1322–1328).

Having been informed that his daughters-in-law were engaging in adultery with two knights – according to some sources, he was told this by his own daughter, Isabella – he allegedly caught two of them in the act in 1313, and had all three shut up in royal prisons. Margaret (1290–1315), the wife of his eldest son and heir apparent, Louis X and I (1289–1316), had borne her husband only a daughter at this time, and the paternity of this girl, Joan, was with her mother's adultery now suspect. Accordingly, Louis – unwilling to release his wife and return to their marriage – needed to remarry. He arranged a marriage with his cousin, Clementia of Hungary (1293–1328), and after Queen Margaret conveniently died in 1315 (strangled by order of the King, some claimed), he swiftly remarried to Clementia. She was pregnant when he died a year later, after an unremarkable reign; uncertain of how to arrange the succession (the two main claimants being Louis' daughter Joan – the suspected bastard – and Louis' younger brother Philip (1293–1322), Count of Poitiers), the French set up a regency under the Count of Poitiers, and hoped that the child would be a boy. This proved the case, but the boy – King John I (1316), known as the Posthumous – died after only 5 days, leaving a succession crisis. Eventually, it was decided based on several legal reasons (later reinterpreted as Salic Law) that Joan was ineligible to inherit the throne, which passed to the Count of Poitiers, who became Philip V. He, however, produced no surviving sons with his wife, Joan II, Countess of Burgundy (1291–1330), who had been cleared of her charges of adultery; thus, when he died in 1322, the crown passed to his brother, Charles (1294–1328), Count of La Marche, who became Charles IV; the County of Burgundy, brought to the Capetians by the marriage of Joan and Philip V, remained with Joan, and ceased to be part of the royal domains.

Charles IV swiftly divorced his adulterous wife, Blanche of Burgundy (c.1296–1326) (sister of Countess Joan), who had given him no surviving children, and who had been locked up since 1313; in her place, he married Marie of Luxembourg (1304–1324), a daughter of Emperor Henry VII (c.1275–1313). Marie died in 1324, giving birth to a stillborn son. He then remarried to his cousin, Jeanne d'Évreux (1310–1371), who however bore him only daughters; when he died in 1328, his only child was Marie, a daughter by Jeanne, and the unborn child his wife was pregnant with. Philip of Valois (1293–1350), Count of Anjou and Valois, Charles' cousin, was set up as regent; when the Queen produced a daughter, Blanche, Philip by assent of the great magnates became Philip VI, of the House of Valois, cadet branch of the Capetian Dynasty.

The last of the direct Capetians were the daughters of Philip IV's three sons, and Philip IV's daughter, Isabella. Since they were female, they could not transmit their Capetian status to their descendants. The wife of Edward II of England (1284–1327), Isabella (c.1295–1358) overthrew her husband in favour of her son (Edward III, 1312–1377) and her co-hort and lover (Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, 1287–1330), only for Edward III to execute Mortimer and have Isabella removed from power. On the death of her brother, Charles IV, she claimed to be her father's heiress, and demanded the throne pass to her son (who as a male, an heir to Philip IV, and of adult age, was considered to have a good claim to the throne); however, her claim was refused, eventually providing a cause for the Hundred Years' War.

Joan (1312–1349), the daughter of Louis X, succeeded on the death of Charles IV to the throne of Navarre, she now being – questions of paternity aside – the unquestioned heiress. She was the last direct Capetian ruler of that kingdom, being succeeded by her son, Charles II of Navarre (1332–1387); his father, Philip of Évreux (1306–1343) had been a member of the Capetian House of Évreux. Mother and son both claimed on several occasions the throne of France, and later the Duchy of Burgundy.

Of Charles IV's children, only Blanche (1328–1382) – the youngest, the baby whose birth marked the end of the House of Capet – survived childhood. She married Philip of Valois, Duke of Orléans (1336–1376), the son of Philip VI, but they produced no children. With her death in 1392, the House of Capet finally came to an end.

1.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois

2.
Hugh Capet
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Hugh Capet was the first King of the Franks of the House of Capet from his election in 987 until his death. He succeeded the last Carolingian king, Louis V, the son of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, and Hedwige of Saxony, daughter of the German king Henry the Fowler, Hugh was born in 941. Hugh Capet was born into a well-connected and powerful family with ties to the royal houses of France. Through his mother, Hugh was the nephew to Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne, and finally, Gerberga of Saxony, Queen of France. Gerberga was the wife of Louis IV, King of France and mother of Lothair of France and Charles and his paternal family, the Robertians, were powerful landowners in the Île-de-France. His grandfather had been King Robert I, King Odo was his granduncle and King Rudolph was his uncle by affinity. Hughs paternal grandmother was a descendant of Charlemagne, after the end of the ninth century, the descendants of Robert the Strong became indispensable in carrying out royal policies. As Carolingian power failed, the nobles of West Francia began to assert that the monarchy was elective, not hereditary. Robert I, Hugh the Greats father, was succeeded as King of the Franks by his son-in-law, when Rudolph died in 936, Hugh the Great had to decide whether he ought to claim the throne for himself. To block his rivals, Hugh the Great brought Louis dOutremer and this maneuver allowed Hugh to become the most powerful person in France in the first half of the tenth century. Once in power, Louis IV granted him the title of dux Francorum, Louis also officially declared Hugh the second after us in all our kingdoms. Hugh also gained power when Herbert II of Vermandois died in 943, Hugh the Great came to dominate a wide swath of central France, from Orléans and Senlis to Auxerre and Sens, while the king was rather confined to the area northeast of Paris. The realm in which Hugh grew up, and of which he would one day be king, Hughs predecessors did not call themselves kings of France, and that title was not used by his successors until the time of his descendant, Philip II. Kings ruled as rex Francorum, the remaining in use until 1190 The lands they ruled comprised only a small part of the former Carolingian Empire. The eastern Frankish lands, the Holy Roman Empire, were ruled by the Ottonian dynasty, represented by Hughs first cousin Otto II and then by Ottos son, Otto III. The lands south of the river Loire had largely ceased to be part of the West Francia kingdom in the years after Charles the Simple was deposed in 922. Both the Duchy of Normandy and the Duchy of Burgundy were largely independent, in 956, when his father Hugh the Great died, Hugh, the eldest son, was then about fifteen years old and had two younger brothers. In 954, Otto I appointed his brother Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine, as guardian of Lothair, in 956, Otto gave him the same role over Hugh and the Robertian principality

3.
Charles IV of France
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Charles IV, called the Fair in France and the Bald in Navarre, was the last direct Capetian King of France and King of Navarre from 1322 to his death. Charles was the son of Philip IV, like his father. Beginning in 1323 Charles was confronted with a peasant revolt in Flanders, as duke of Guyenne, King Edward II of England was a vassal of Charles, but he was reluctant to pay homage to another king. In retaliation, Charles conquered the Duchy of Guyenne in a known as the War of Saint-Sardos. In a peace agreement, Edward II accepted to swear allegiance to Charles, in exchange, Guyenne was returned to Edward but with a much-reduced territory. When Charles IV died without heir, the senior lineage of the House of Capet ended. He was succeeded by his cousin Philip of Valois, but the legitimacy was one factor of the Hundred Years War. By virtue of the birthright of his mother, Joan I of Navarre, Charles claimed the title Charles I, King of Navarre. From 1314 to his accession to the throne, he held the title of Count of La Marche and was crowned King of France in 1322 at the cathedral in Reims. Charles married his first wife, Blanche of Burgundy, the daughter of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy, in 1308, after Charles assumed the throne he refused to release Blanche, their marriage was annulled, and Blanche retreated to a nunnery. His second wife, Marie of Luxembourg, the daughter of Henry VII, Charles married again in 1325, this time to Jeanne dÉvreux, she was his first cousin, and the marriage required approval from Pope John XXII. Jeanne was crowned queen in 1326, in one of the better recorded French coronation ceremonies, the coronation was also the first appearance of the latterly famous medieval cook, Guillaume Tirel, then only a junior servant. During the first half of his reign Charles relied heavily on his uncle, Charles of Valois, for advice, Charles of Valois would have been aware that if Charles died without male heirs, he and his male heirs would have a good claim to the crown. Charles undertook rapid steps to assert his own control, executing the Count of LIsle-Jourdain, a troublesome southern noble, Charles, a relatively well educated king, also founded a famous library at Fontainebleau. During his six-year reign Charles administration became increasingly unpopular and he debased the coinage to his own benefit, sold offices, increased taxation, exacted burdensome duties, and confiscated estates from enemies or those he disliked. He was also involved in Jewish issues during the period. Charles father, Philip IV, had confiscated the estates of numerous Jews in 1306, and Charles took vigorous, finally, Charles at least acquiesced, or at worst actively ordered, in the expulsion of many Jews from France following the leper scare. Charles inherited a long-running period of tension between England and France, once Charles took up the throne, Edward attempted to avoid payment again

4.
Capetian House of Anjou
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The Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three royal houses referred to as Angevin, meaning from Anjou in France. Founded by Charles I of Naples, a son of Louis VIII of France, later the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced him out of the island of Sicily, leaving him with just the southern half of the Italian Peninsula — the Kingdom of Naples. The house and its various branches would go on to much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages. Historically, the House ruled Naples and Sicily, parts of Greece, Hungary, and Poland. A younger son of House of Capet king Louis VIII of France the Lion, Charles married the heiress of the County of Provence named Beatrice of Provence, she was a member of the House of Barcelona, this meant Charles holdings were growing as Count of Provence. The reason for Charles being offered the kingdom was because of a conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, the latter of whom were represented by the ruling House of Hohenstaufen. It was at the Battle of Benevento that the Guelph Capetians gained the Sicilian kingdom from the Ghibelline Swabians, in keeping with the political landscape of the period, Charles is described by scholars as shrewd, energetic and highly ambitious. The Byzantines had taken back the city of Constantinople in 1261, for a while Charles was preoccupied helping his French brother in the unsuccessful Eighth Crusade on Tunis. After this he once again focused on Constantinople, but his fleet was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Trapani. Charles had fully solidified his rule over Durazzo by 1272, creating a small Kingdom of Albania for himself, out of previously Despotate of Epirus territory, Charles was driven out of Sicily in 1282, but his successors ruled Naples until 1435. The line became extinct in the line with the death of King Ladislaus of Naples in 1414. The Kingdom of Albania, or Regnum Albaniae, was established by Charles of Anjou in the Albanian territory he conquered from the Despotate of Epirus in 1271 and he took the title of King of Albania in February 1272. The kingdom extended from the region of Durrës south along the coast to Butrint, a major attempt to advance further in direction of Constantinople, failed at the Siege of Berat. A Byzantine counteroffensive soon ensued, which drove the Angevins out of the interior by 1281, the Sicilian Vespers further weakened the position of Charles, and the Kingdom was soon reduced by the Epirotes to a small area around Durrës. The Angevins held out here, however, until 1368, when the city was captured by Karl Thopia, in 1392 Karl Thopias son surrendered the city and his domains to the Republic of Venice. The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. A History of the Crusades, Volume III, The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press

5.
History of France
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The first written records for the history of France appear in the Iron Age. The Gauls, the largest and best attested group, were Celtic people speaking what is known as the Gaulish language, over the course of the 1st millennium BC the Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians established colonies on the Mediterranean coast and the offshore islands. Afterwards a Gallo-Roman culture emerged and Gaul was increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire, in the later stages of the Roman Empire, Gaul was subject to barbarian raids and migration, most importantly by the Germanic Franks. The Frankish king Clovis I united most of Gaul under his rule in the late 5th century, Frankish power reached its fullest extent under Charlemagne. The war formally began in 1337 following Philip VIs attempt to seize the Duchy of Aquitaine from its holder, Edward III of England. Despite early Plantagenet victories, including the capture and ransom of John II of France, among the notable figures of the war was Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who led French forces against the English, establishing herself as a national heroine. The war ended with a Valois victory in 1453, victory in the Hundred Years War had the effect of strengthening French nationalism and vastly increasing the power and reach of the French monarchy. During the period known as the Ancien Régime, France transformed into an absolute monarchy. During the next centuries, France experienced the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, Henry, King of Navarre, scion of the Bourbon family, would be victorious in the conflict and establish the French Bourbon dynasty. A burgeoning worldwide colonial empire was established in the 16th century, French political power reached a zenith under the rule of Louis XIV, The Sun King, builder of Versailles Palace. In the late 18th century the monarchy and associated institutions were overthrown in the French Revolution, the country was governed for a period as a Republic, until the French Empire was declared by Napoleon Bonaparte. France was one of the Triple Entente powers in World War I, fighting alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, the United States and smaller allies against Germany and the Central Powers. France was one of the Allied Powers in World War II, the Third Republic was dismantled, and most of the country was controlled directly by Germany while the south was controlled until 1942 by the collaborationist Vichy government. Living conditions were harsh as Germany drained away food and manpower, Charles de Gaulle led the Free France movement that one-by-one took over the colonial empire, and coordinated the wartime Resistance. Following liberation in summer 1944, a Fourth Republic was established, France slowly recovered economically, and enjoyed a baby boom that reversed its very low fertility rate. Long wars in Indochina and Algeria drained French resources and ended in political defeat, in the wake of the Algerian Crisis of 1958, Charles de Gaulle set up the French Fifth Republic. Into the 1960s decolonization saw most of the French colonial empire become independent, while smaller parts were incorporated into the French state as overseas departments, since World War II France has been a permanent member in the UN Security Council and NATO. It played a role in the unification process after 1945 that led to the European Union

6.
Prehistory of France
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Stone tools indicate that early humans were present in France at least 1.57 million years ago. Stone tools discovered at Lézignan-la-Cèbe in 2009 indicate that humans were present in France at least 1.57 million years ago. France includes Olduwan and Acheulean sites from early or non-modern Hominini species, most notably Homo erectus, tooth Arago 149 -560,000 years. Tautavel Man, is a subspecies of the hominid Homo erectus. The Grotte du Vallonnet near Menton contained simple stone tools dating to 1 million to 1.05 million years BC, excavations at Terra Amata found traces of the earliest known domestication of fire in Europe, from 400,000 BC. Importantly, recent findings suggest that Neandertals and modern humans may have interbred, evidence of cannibalism among Neanderthals found in Neanderthal settlements Moula-Guercy and Les Pradelles. When they arrived in Europe, they brought with them sculpture, engraving, painting, body ornamentation, music, some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France, are datable to shortly after this migration. European Palaeolithic cultures are divided into several subgroups, Aurignacian – responsible for Venus figurines. Périgordian – use of term is debated. Gravettian – responsible for Venus figurines, cave paintings at the Cosquer Cave, solutrean Magdalenian – thought to be responsible for the cave paintings at Pech Merle, Lascaux, the Trois-Frères cave and the Rouffignac Cave also known as The Cave of the hundred mammoths. It possesses the most extensive system of the Périgord in France with more than 8 kilometers of underground passageways. Experts sometimes refer to the Franco-Cantabrian region to describe densely populated region of southern France. From the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, the Magdalenian culture evolved, the Azilian culture was followed by the Sauveterrian in Southern France and Switzerland, the Tardenoisian in Northern France, the Maglemosian in Northern Europe. Archeologists are unsure whether Western Europe saw a Mesolithic immigration, if Gravettian or Epipaleolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages are obvious candidates for previous Paleolithic remnants. The Vascons of the Pyrenees present the strongest case, since their language is related to other in the world. The disappearance of the Doggerland affected the surrounding territories, the Doggerland population had to go as far as northern France and eastern Ireland to escape from the floods. The Neolithic period lasted in northern Europe for approximately 3,000 years, there was an expansion of peoples from southwest Asia into Europe, this diffusion across Europe, from the Aegean to Britain, took about 2,500 years. Within the framework of this theory, which remains the most commonly accepted model of Indo-European expansion

7.
Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul
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Following the founding of the major trading post of Massalia in 600 BC by the Phocaeans at present day Marseille, Massalians had a complex history of interaction with peoples of the region. The oldest city within modern France, Marseille, was founded around 600 BC by Greeks from the Asia Minor city of Phocaea as a trading post or emporion under the name Μασσαλία, the contours of the Greek city have been partially excavated in several neighborhoods. The Phocaean Greeks introduced the cult of Artemis, as in their other colonies and it is thought that contacts started even earlier however, as Ionian Greeks traded in the Western Mediterranean and Spain, but only very little remains from that earlier period. The Greeks from Phocaea also founded settlements in the island of Corsica, from Massalia, the Phocaean Greeks also founded cities in northeastern Spain such as Emporiae and Rhoda. Before the Greeks came to pre-eminence in the Gulf of Lion, according to Charles Ebel, writing in the 1960s, Massalia was not an isolated Greek city, but had developed an Empire of its own along the coast of southern Gaul by the fourth century. But the idea of a Massalian empire is no longer credible in the light of recent archaeological evidence, however further archaeological evidence since shows Massalia had over twelve cities in its network in France, Spain, Monaco and Corsica. Cities Massalia founded that still exist today are Nice, Antibes, Monaco, Le Brusc, Agde, there is evidence of direct rule of at least two of their cities with a flexible system of autonomy as suggested by Emporion and Rhodus own coin minting. Massalias empire was not the same as the monolithic of the ancient world or of the century being a scattered group of cities connected by the sea. The Delian League was also a group of cities spread far across the sea. Greek Marseille eventually became a centre of culture which drew some Roman parents to send their children there to be educated. According to earlier views, a hellenization of Southern France prior to the Roman Conquest of Transalpine Gaul is thought to have been largely due to the influence of Massalia. However, more recent scholarship has shown that the idea of Hellenization was illusory, the power and cultural influence of Massalia have been called into question by demonstrating the limited territorial control of the city and showing the distinctive cultures of indigenous societies. The site of Vix in northern Burgundy is an example of a Hallstatt settlement where such Mediterranean objects were consumed. Some, like the famous Vix krater, were spectacular in nature, from Marseille, maritime trade also developed with Languedoc and Etruria, and with the Greek city of Emporiae on the coast of Spain. The mother city of Phocaea would ultimately be destroyed by the Persians in 545, trading links were extensive, in iron, spices, wheat and slaves. However, the evidence for this is weak, at best, overland trade with Celtic countries beyond the Mediterranean region declined around 500 BC, in conjunction with the troubles following the end of the Halstatt civilization. The site of Mont Lassois was abandoned around that time, the Greek colony of Massalia remained active in the following centuries. Around 325 BC, Pytheas made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe as far as the Arctic Circle from his city of Marseilles

8.
Francia
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The kingdom was founded by Clovis I, crowned first King of the Franks in 496. The tradition of dividing patrimonies among brothers meant that the Frankish realm was ruled, nominally, even so, sometimes the term was used as well to encompass Neustria north of the Loire and west of the Seine. Most Frankish Kings were buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis, modern France is still named Francia in Spanish and Italian. The Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a confederation of smaller Germanic tribes, such as the Sicambri, Bructeri, Ampsivarii, Chamavi and Chattuarii, in the area north and east of the Rhine. Some of these peoples, such as the Sicambri and Salians, already had lands in the Roman Empire, in 357 the Salian king entered the Roman Empire and made a permanent foothold there by a treaty granted by Julian the Apostate, who forced back the Chamavi to Hamaland. As Frankish territory expanded, the meaning of Francia expanded with it, after the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after the fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus. Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c, around 428 the Salian king Chlodio, whose kingdom included Toxandria and the civitatus Tungrorum, launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum and the Somme. The kingdom of Chlodio changed the borders and the meaning of the word Francia permanently, Francia was no longer barbaricum trans Rhenum, but a landed political power on both sides of the river, deeply involved in Roman politics. Chlodios family, the Merovingians, extended Francia even further south, the core territory of the Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia. Chlodios successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I, possibly his grandson, Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Roman exclave of Soissons, defeated the Alemanni, Clovis defeated the Visigoths and conquered their entire kingdom with its capital at Toulouse, and conquered the Bretons and made them vassals of Francia. He conquered most or all of the neighbouring Frankish tribes along the Rhine, by the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy, the Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance, dividing their lands among their sons. Cloviss sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul, Theuderic I made his capital at Reims, Chlodomer at Orléans, Childebert I at Paris, and Chlothar I at Soissons. During their reigns, the Thuringii, Burgundes, and Saxons and Frisians were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom, the fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia. Theudebert interfered in the Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths, receiving the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and part of Venetia

9.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy

10.
Merovingian dynasty
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The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as Francia in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I, the son of Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, after the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbours the Merovingians presented a strong united front. During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role, the Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III. Zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, the Merovingian ruling family were sometimes referred to as the long-haired kings by contemporaries, as their long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to the semi-legendary Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, the victories of his son Childeric I against the Visigoths, Saxons, and Alemanni established the basis of Merovingian land. Childerics son Clovis I went on to unite most of Gaul north of the Loire under his control around 486, when he defeated Syagrius, the Roman ruler in those parts. He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, at time, according to Gregory of Tours. He subsequently went on to defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Cloviss death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons, leadership among the early Merovingians was probably based on mythical descent and alleged divine patronage, expressed in terms of continued military success. In 1906 the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty, upon Cloviss death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania magna except Saxony. To the outside, the kingdom, even when divided under different kings, maintained unity, after the fall of the Ostrogoths, the Franks also conquered Provence. After this their borders with Italy and Visigothic Septimania remained fairly stable, internally, the kingdom was divided among Cloviss sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between the different kings, who quickly allied among themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the brothers and the deceaseds sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around Brunhilda, however, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established rules and norms. Eventually, Clotaire II in 613 reunited the entire Frankish realm under one ruler, later divisions produced the stable units of Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitania. The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and these concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading comites and duces. Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, clotaires son Dagobert I, who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King

11.
Early modern France
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The Kingdom of France in the early modern period, from the Renaissance to the Revolution, was a monarchy ruled by the House of Bourbon. This corresponds to the so-called Ancien Régime, the territory of France during this period increased until it included essentially the extent of the modern country, and it also included the territories of the first French colonial empire overseas. In the mid 15th century, France was significantly smaller than it is today, in addition, certain provinces within France were ostensibly personal fiefdoms of noble families. The late 15th, 16th and 17th centuries would see France undergo a massive territorial expansion, France also embarked on exploration, colonisation, and mercantile exchanges with the Americas, India, the Indian Ocean, the Far East, and a few African trading posts. The administrative and legal system in France in this period is called the Ancien Régime. The Black Death had killed an estimated one-third of the population of France from its appearance in 1348, the concurrent Hundred Years War slowed recovery. It would be the early 16th century before the population recovered to mid-14th century levels and these demographic changes also led to a massive increase in urban populations, although on the whole France remained a profoundly rural country. Paris was one of the most populated cities in Europe, other major French cities include Lyon, Rouen, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Marseille. These centuries saw several periods of epidemics and crop failures due to wars, between 1693 and 1694, France lost 6% of its population. In the extremely harsh winter of 1709, France lost 3. 5% of its population, in the past 300 years, no period has been so proportionally deadly for the French, both World Wars included. Linguistically, the differences in France were extreme, before the Renaissance, the language spoken in the north of France was a collection of different dialects called Oïl languages whereas the written and administrative language remained Latin. Nevertheless, in 1790, only half of the spoke or understood standard French. The southern half of the continued to speak Occitan languages, and other inhabitants spoke Breton, Catalan, Basque, Dutch. In the north of France, regional dialects of the various langues doïl continued to be spoken in rural communities, during the French revolution, the teaching of French was promoted in all the schools. The French used would be that of the system, which differed from the French spoken in the courts of France before the revolution. Like the orators during the French revolution, the pronunciation of every syllable would become the new language, France would not become a linguistically unified country until the end of the 19th century. The Peace of Etaples marks, for some, the beginning of the modern period in France. The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII in 1494 began 62 years of war with the Habsburgs, in 1445, the first steps were made towards fashioning a regular army out of the poorly disciplined mercenary bands that French kings traditionally relied on

The division of Francia on Clovis's death (511). The kingdoms were not geographic unities because they were formed in an attempt to create equal-sized fiscs. The discrepancy in size reveals the concentration of Roman fiscal lands.

The division of Gaul on Chlothar I's death (561). Though more geographically unified realms were created out of the second fourfold division of Francia, the complex division of Provence created many problems for the rulers of Burgundy and Austrasia.

Popular colored etching, verging on caricature, published by Décrouant, early 19th century: La famille royale et les alliées s'occupant du bonheur de l'Europe (The Royal Family and the Allies concerned with the Happiness of Europe)

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who served under several regimes, depicted "floating with the tide". Note the high heel of Talleyrand's left shoe, alluding both to his limp and the Devil's hoof.

In Occupied France during the war, reproductions of the 18 June appeal were distributed through underground means as pamphlets and plastered on walls as posters by supporters of the Résistance. This could be a dangerous activity.

Free French Forces Adrian helmet with the Cross of Lorraine replacing the 1939–1940 French Republic "RF" emblem